Do I have dry eyes

[Joseph]

I read a lot of stuff about dry eyes but it never really describes my eyes. I never get the burning, menthol feeling that dry eye people suffer from. My eyes seem to always feel like they are getting the tears they need but the tears are to thick and way to oily. Also I notice that a lot of my eye problems are not really the eye's but rather the eyelids. I have been diagnosed with blepharitis and mgd which causes vision fluctuations, light sensitivity, debri in tear film and itchy painfull eyelid rims. I also get the gritty eyes feeling when blinking and tons of sand in the corners of my eyes. I love this forum but at times feel bad about how I am complaining about my eyes and some of the people on here have eyes that are actually burning and in severe pain. I hope somebody can help me understand if I am in the right place.

[Rebecca Petris]

You're definitely in the right place!

You have a lot of symptoms, and they are all symptoms I hear frequently from people. Burning and menthol sensations may be often reported here but that doesn't mean they're "the" standard. (Bear in mind that almost by definition people who end up here are probably exceptions in some way already.) Dry eye symptoms really are all over the map. I know people with severe dry eye whose ONLY symptoms are how their vision is affected... no pain at all.

I think of "dry eye" (or, "dry eye disease") as a catchall term for the vast array of diseases and other conditions affecting the production and distribution of the tear film. That includes eyelids, because they host glands producing tear components and they push tears around and (if they're aligned correctly) seal tears in during sleep.

I think it's common for people here to think everyone else is worse off than they are somehow based on what they read... but it's not true

p.s. Thank you for the very, very, very kind post in the depression forum. Kudos to the community for making DEZ what it is. All I did was set up the forum, it's the community itself that is so great!